43
Emelia
I stare at the beautiful man before me and think of how far we’ve come and what we experienced together.
So much has happened in the handful of months we’ve known each other.
We lost our fathers and had terrible secrets revealed.
I can’t express how awful I feel when I think of how my father truly damaged him and took away the things that mattered most to him. Family. Both his parents were killed at the hand of my father. My father threw his mother off a cliff and shot his father dead.
And yet this man still has love for me.
We exist outside everything. He is it for me. There’s only one answer I can give him.
When I smile, he gives me a hopeful look.
“I, Emelia D’Agostino, take you, Massimo D’Agostino, to be my husband. I love you, and I’m staying with you. It means so much to me that you did this.” I hold up the letter from the Accademia. “You have no idea how much it means. I worked so hard to get in, and I’m so grateful for the chance to go. But more than that, I’m grateful for you. I want to be with you more than anything else. I promise to be true to you in good times, in sickness and in health. I will love and honor you all the days of my life.”
He reaches for me and slips me onto his lap, pressing his forehead to mine.
“You choose me?”
“I choose you, and everything that makes you, you.” That means I choose this life too.
“You are mine, Emelia D’Agostino.”
“I think we should go upstairs now.”
As usual, this man never fails to shock me.
I giggle when he lifts me up, pushes aside the documents on the table, and sets me down.
“I’m having you here,” he declares, shoving my skirt up my thighs. “I’m going to feast on you right here on the table and enjoy making you come over and over again. Then we’ll go upstairs, and I’ll tie you to the bed and have you screaming my name all night.”
“I like that plan,” I answer, and he kisses me hard.
“Great, now spread your legs for me.”
Epilogue
Emelia
Six months later…
“Just feel me, Princess. Feel me and enjoy me. I plan to enjoy you,” Massimo whispers against my ear.
His nose brushes mine and he kisses me. Hot, fiery kisses are places over my cheek, then down my neck.
Against the silky blindfold, all I can do is imagine what his handsome face looks like. Because I can’t see him, all my senses are heightened. His touch seems to reach me everywhere. His voice washes over my skin like a gentle caress. His scent tantalizes me. And the feel of him thrills me.
Today is my birthday. This morning we got married, again, on the beautiful coast of Sicily. It was just the two of us and the priest. Father De Lucca. Massimo said the only thing real about our first wedding was the priest. So, we got him to marry us again. Here we’re we could declare our love and honor for our union.
What I got that I didn’t have the first time was the dream and true love’s kiss. I had all the emotions too, that I always imagined for such a special day.
Now we’re in the beach house living out another fantasy.
His this time. In it my wrists are bound to the bed with silk ties and I’m blindfolded so I can feel all the pleasure he wants to give me.
As he kisses his way down my body, I writhe against the silky sheets, cool against my skin, the perfect balance to the fire from his lips.
Just like always, it doesn’t take long for me to get lost in him. I do within a few moments as I feel all that he has to give me, all at once.
The wild suckle of my breasts, the intense tasting of my pussy, the luxuriating sensations that make me surrender to one orgasm after another.
I feel amazing, but nothing feels better than his cock inside me. As he sears into me, my body welcomes the thrilling sensation of his thick cock filling my passage.
Pleasure explodes inside me when he starts to fuck me. I writhe against him hot and wild, arching my back into the bed, the thrill wilder due to the restraints around my wrists. I’m completely and utterly under his spell with every secret part of me screaming his name.
The savage energy storms through my body like liquid fire, and as I come, he does too. Our bodies joint together share the mutual surrender of the unexpected thing that came to claim us starting from that first moment we saw each other.
It takes a few minutes to climb down from the high, but my brain is still buzzing and reeling with delight.
He pulls out of me and releases the binding from my hands. The blindfold comes off next, and when I see my handsome prince, I smile.
We kiss, and he pulls me into his arms, where I always feel safe.
It’s dark outside. We’ve been in this bed for hours. The minute after we said, ‘I do’.
“You must be tired, Emelia,” he whispers to me.Belonging © NôvelDram/a.Org.
“I’m not. I don’t want the day to end. It was perfect.” It was the most perfect day I’ve ever had.
“It is perfect. I promise you many more days like this.” He turns to face me and takes my hand.
“Thank you. I promise you perfect days too.” I always try to show him that I want to do things for him too.
“Every day I have with you is perfect.”
I’ve been in Florence now for the last six months. He comes to see me every weekend. Not one weekend has gone by when he hasn’t come. Even though I’m living my dream, I miss him so much when I’m not with him.
This visit was extra special because of our wedding plans and my birthday.
We’ll be flying back to LA together for the Easter break. I have another eighteen months to finish the program. Then I’d love to work for a gallery. But I have other dreams I want with this man.
He looks down at me and searches my eyes. “What are you thinking about?”
“Our future.”
His smile turns up a notch. “What do you see in this future of ours, Princesca?”
“Everything. I want everything with you. That includes the ten kids you said we’d have.” We have this running joke I don’t actually think is a joke. But I like it.
“That sounds like a great future.”
I reach up and touch his face. “Thank you for giving me my dream and being you. You are my happiness.”
“You are my happiness too, Emelia.” He presses his forehead to mine. I know he truly means that.
Our journey that led us to this moment. We’re exactly where we should be. We belong to each other.
I’m his, and he is mine.
Nothing is more perfect than that.
Massimo
I look from Tristan to Dominic sitting before me and rest my hands down on the table.
I have to reread the letter in my hands again just to process it in my head. Dominic brought it to me. It was left at the D’Agostinos, slipped under my office door.
It says:
Dear Massimo,
You do not know me. But I know you, and I feel compelled to contact you in light of the information I’ve recently discovered.
There was so much more to what happened seven months ago when the Syndicate was obliterated.
There were more people involved than who you think. So many more who were responsible for the deaths of our loved ones. So many got their hands dirty to end our fathers.
Riccardo Balesteri was just a pawn in a bigger game to eradicate enemies. I urge you not to stand alone but to reform the Syndicate and lead. Be a leader.
It is only with the strongest alliances that you will be able to hunt your enemies, or war will come.
Good luck.
A friend
Rage I’ve tried to calm fills me at the thought of more people involved in Pa’s death.
This letter answers questions I had on my mind.
I should have known that day when the bomb went off in the Syndicate building that more people could be involved. I should have known that more people must have been involved right from the time when we raised the alarm that Riccardo was involved in a plot to wipe out the Brotherhood and no one could find him nor Vlad. It didn’t make sense for that to happen given who the Syndicate was.
Now it’s clear as fucking day they had help.
I ball my fist and slam it down on the table.
“What are you going to do?” Tristan asks. “Reforming the Syndicate is not a bad idea, Massimo. They formed for a reason, and we have the next generation of leaders we can look to.”
I’ve purposely avoided talk of it because I didn’t know what to do. Many have contacted me, but I placed it on hold. Tristan is right though. The Syndicate was formed for a reason. The wealth and assets I’ve accumulated are so vast it blows my mind. It was designed to be shared and used.
I sigh. “There are few I trust,” I reply.
“Maybe that’s why this guy suggested you take the lead. People you select to join you will be more trustworthy,” Dominic joins in.
“I agree,” Tristan adds.
“I want vengeance. Hearing this shit makes me want to hunt the fuckers responsible.”
I know the other bosses and leaders of the crime families who were part of the Brotherhood would feel the same way. It’d have strength in numbers and get blood for fucking blood.
“Then do it, Massimo. Reform and lead, and we’ll back you up like we always do,” Tristan imparts with a firm nod.
I gaze out to the beach and see my girl off in a distance, painting.
I promised I’d protect her from everything so we could have this life.
I don’t want the threat of war or anything to threaten our family. I want everything with her. The future with her and the children we’ll have.
She chose me to be her husband and protector. Pa chose me to take the lead on the business and the family. My brothers chose me because they believe in me.
It’s time to become who I’m supposed to be and take the lead, indeed. On everything.
“I’ll do it.”